Question Paper Mario TTYD 64 WAD?

[Lemoncake]

What’s up guys? I’m a big fan of the original Paper Mario for the N64, and a couple months ago heard about a rom hack of the game that essentially recreates it with new content and battle mechanics from its sequel, Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. It is called Paper Mario TTYD 64.

Now I really wanted to try and play this game. Like, a lot. It looked like the perfect DLC of the original game that I had always wanted. My first thought was to try and play it on my modded Nintendo Wii, but unfortunately none of the Wii’s N64 emulators were able to hold up (various audio issues, visual bugs, etc). But then I’d had another thought: what if I converted the z64 file into a Virtual Console WAD? I mean, the Wii’s N64 Virtual Console is one of the best N64 emulators out there, and I know it’s also possible to inject ROMS into WAD files and then install them as channels (of course it risks banner bricking your Wii so take the necessary precautions…). So, I downloaded the WAD injection tools, but was never able to get it to work. Unfortunately, the z64 file of TTYD64 was 47 mb, and the largest N64 WAD I could find was 46 mb (OoT). When compiling, I kept getting the error that the ROM wad too big to inject. But while doing research, I learned that it’s somehow possible to compress your z64 files into smaller sizes, which could theoretically give this project one last fighting chance. Does anyone have any experience attempting this kind of thing? Specifically the part about compressing z64 files to smaller sizes. Appreciate any advice you may have to share!

 

[Soak_n_fused]

You can try searching around for the OoT debug WAD and try injecting into that one, it’s a little larger iirc.

 

[Lemoncake]

You can try searching around for the OoT debug WAD and try injecting into that one, it’s a little larger iirc.

I’ll give it a try. Thanks! Hopefully it’s a couple mb’s bigger…

 

[Lemoncake]

Okay, so I don't think the size of the WAD is going to change much (unless it's a good 10 mb bigger). I wasn't able to track down the OoT Debug WAD, but turns out Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (?) was a little less than 1 mb bigger, and the injection still returned with a "ROM is too big to inject into this WAD." I think my only option left is to compress the Paper Mario TTYD 64 z64 ROM to a smaller size. I've heard of people compressing N64 ROM hacks from whatever size they originally were to 32 mb, and then successfully injecting them into other WADS. I know BitBuilt may be the wrong forum to ask this on, but does anyone have a specific guide they could share that walks you through compressing z64 files to a smaller (but still functional/readable) size? My internet research has come back empty so far... Any reply is appreciated!